Tigers maul Bourgoin

THERE have always been difficulties in translation between French and English rugby and it may be that Bourgoin's absent international prop forward was suffering from a severe bout of flu.

But when Olivier Milloud was said to have missed the game at Leicester because of a 'little cough', the door was opened wide to the knock, knock of an old joke.

Not so much a wee cough as a week off.

Bourgoin have previous form in this competition and not the sort revealed in a record of 19 defeats in 22 matches over the last four seasons.

A second string were thrashed 92-17 by Leinster in Dublin two years ago having five weeks earlier gone down 34-0 at home to Treviso when fielding a reserve side.

"They did leave home our two internationals this weekend," Bourgoin scrum half Mike Prendergast said with the confused mix of pronouns of a lamb to the slaughter.

The Welford Road public address announcer got it right even though he insisted on correcting himself. "The score is Leicester 15 Bourgoin nothing, I mean nil," he said with the clocking showing only seven minutes played.

Bourgoin had arrived with nothing like their strongest team, offered precisely nothing and left with nothing, not even their fragile reputation, intact.

To be fair, they are a small club from a small town, population 20,000, with limited resources who concentrate their efforts on the French league. This week they face a crucial domestic fixture against Montebaun.

Leicester secured a try in just 29 seconds — and eight in all — and kept the scoreboard moving at an Adam Gilchrist rate in the early stages. The bonus point was bagged within half and hour.

Thereafter, combining powerful forward and support play with innovative and thrilling threequarter handling, they looked as if they could score at will.

"It was the hardest and toughest game I have experienced in my life," Prendergast said, looking like a cartoon character after being flattened by a steamroller.

Prendergast is a relevant witness. He was understudy to Peter Stringer at Munster last season and knows all about the intimidating atmosphere at Thomond Park. Leicester's progress to the quarter finals will require victory in Limerick at the end of January. A daunting task if ever there was one.

"They are more than capable of winning there," Prendergast said. "If Leicester perform like they did today then they can beat Munster. Of course, Munster have an advantage in that pretty much everyone from number 1 to 10 plays week in, week out, either for province or country.

"Thomond Park and Welford Road are very similar. The atmosphere for visitors is pretty scarey. And there is a fear factor as far as the home players are concerned as well. The fear of losing can be a powerful motivator."

Lewis Moody has never been afraid of losing in his life. But he became pretty fed up of it with England last month. Back in the bosom of Leicester and scoring his first hat-trick of tries since his days with Bracknell Under 8s, Moody admitted to feeling rejuvenated.

"It is nice to have a bit of enjoyment playing rugby, working out all the stresses and strains of the past month. Great to show that you can play flowing rugby and prove what you can do.

"We won through sheer doggedness up front at Bourgoin. This time we moved the ball through the hands and showed what we can do with our backs. We loved every minute of it out there and we played with a smile on our faces."

Not exactly the view of Bourgoin Glenn Davis. The Kiwi played despite being injured out of position on the right wing, the area where the Tigers scored most of their points. Father Marty knows the feeling — he is coach to Luxembourg.